Trivia / Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

• Acting for Two: Due to Glenn Strange having injured his ankle, Lon Chaney Jr. played the Monster during the scene where he throws Sandra through the window.
• All-Star Cast: In addition to Abbott and Costello, it's the Who's Who of Universal Horror: Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's Monster, Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man, and Vincent Price as The Invisible Man. Notably, this was the only other time Lugosi reprised his most famous role on screen.
• Banned in China: The film was banned in Finland for years.
• Corpsing: The scene where Costello is unknowingly sitting on the Monster's lap had to be re-shot many times because Glenn Strange couldn't stop cracking up. Even in the finished version, you can see him starting to smile as he gets up to chase Costello. Outtakes showing Strange laughing have survived.
• Dawson Casting: Wilbur states that he is thirty in one scene, but Lou Costello was forty-two at the time.
• Money, Dear Boy: Lou Costello didn't want to make the movie, declaring, "No way I'll do that crap. My little girl could write something better than this." A $50,000 advance in salary and the signing of director Charles Barton convinced him otherwise.
• No Stunt Double: Lenore Aubert did all of her own stunts and all her own screams. She wanted to do the stunt where she's carried and thrown through a skylight, but the director, Charles Barton, and the head of the studio, Robert Arthur, who were persuaded by Aubert to do all of her own stunts explained to her they were nervous and scared for her safety and while they took caution to not let Aubert get hurt in any way they could not let her be tossed through the window because the motion picture insurance company would never allow her to do it. The stuntwoman, Helen Thurston, when tossed through the sugar window fell on her right hip do to the fact that the cable wire she was attached to was given too much slack.
• The Original Darrin: For the first time in seventeen years, Bela Lugosi returns as Dracula, following two movies in which John Carradine played the role and another in which Wolf Man actor Lon Chaney Jr. played him.
• The Other Darrin: Boris Karloff was reportedly approached about playing Frankenstein's Monster, but he declined, so instead Glenn Strange reprises his role as the Frankenstein Monster from House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.
• Prop Recycling: The ring Bela Lugosi wears was reportedly the same one worn by John Carradine in House of Frankenstein.
• Role Reprise:
  • While he played other vampires, this is the only time that Bela Lugosi explicitly recreated the role that he made famous in Dracula (1931).
  • Lon Chaney Jr. filled in as the Monster for one scene, reprising his role from The Ghost of Frankenstein.
• Throw It In!: When the Monster punches through the door, Wilbur wasn't supposed to get hit. Lou was off his mark, meaning that Glenn Strange actually punched him very hard in the head. Amazingly, no one breaks character and Lou gives a hilariously dazed take to the camera.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Vincent Price as the Invisible Man at the end.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kharis the Mummy was originally going to be included in the cast of monsters, but that idea was eventually dropped. A Egyptian Sarcophagus appears in the movie as a possible nod to this.
  • An early version of the script had the titular duo as workers on a ship transporting the dormant bodies of the monsters, who would've been revived when the boys spill their lunch, which just so happened to contain the newly-established combination of common kitchen ingredients that would do so, all over them.
  • The scene where Dracula psychically lures Wilbur back into the castle was initally scripted to have Wilbur defiantly sit down on a rock and refuse to move, only for the rock take off into the castle with him along for the ride.
• Working Title: The film was originally called The Brain of Frankenstein, but it was decided that sounded too much like a straight horror film, and didn't capitalize enough on billing the famous comedy duo.

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